Samosas! (2012-12-11)

Just two weeks before Christmas 7 FITYMI participants found themselves completing a completely unrelated task - Samosas! Most of the participants had never heard of Samosas, let alone tried to make them, and those who knew of them also knew that they loved them. Everybody learned something new and at the end of the workshop we had a filling samosa party with 3 chutneys (mango, tamarind and pumpkin/apple), a yogurt dip and also indian

Fake it Till You Make it Find it/FITYMIFI (2012-12-07)

Fake it Till You Make it Find it/FITYMIFI are surprise workshops for social/anti-social engagement; for FITYMIFI, 5 envelopes were hidden around Ptarmigan containing instructions and everything needed to complete a project while hopefully learning and trying something new...some of the projects appeared in previous Fake It Till You Make Its ('Snow-made Ice Cream', 'Joule Thieves and 'Basic Structural Engineering ) and some were brand new for FITYMIFI. You can download instructions for completing the all of the 2012/12/07 FITYMIFI projects, as PDFs, below.

Basic Structural Engineering (2012-11-02 )

Is it possible to engineer plastic cutlery to support a persons body weight using only string to connect the forks, knives and spoons together? This was the challenge of the 8th session of FiTYMi; to use some basic forms taught to participants at the beginning of the workshop (A-Frames, arches, cross beams, etc.) in order to super engineer a structure out of weak materials.

Participants found the challenge frustrating but were able to meditate on the problem over bowls of fragrant and creamy vegan pumpkin soup, with an optional sour cream garnish and warm ciabatta.

2012-10-06 Scream-printing

In another loosely related session of FiTYMi, participants tried screen printing by making quick screens, creating stencils on them and using spray-paint as their printing medium. As mentioned before the session was loosely related with the inspiring theme of Halloween.

Bake it Till You Cup-cake it (2012-07-02)

July of 2012 saw the first Bake it Till You Make it where we made cupcakes and icing. Some of the cupcakes/icings were experimental, some were not, but they were all delicious and everyone had a good time baking together and eating piles of cupcakes. This session of FiTYMi was loosely in celebration of Canada Day which happened on 2012-07-01.

Silicone mold making (2012-06-03)

Session 6 showed participants how to make molds out of commonly available aquarium silicone, quickly and easily. Using Soviet-era toys, a lot of toys and pots of dish soap we kneaded glycerin into the silicone to accelerate the curing process and allow us to handle the silicone. Participants we able to keep their molds which they could use for making candy, candles, chocolate, soap, etc.

We had grilled cheese sandwiches during the workshop as a snack.

Joule Theives (2012-04-20 )

The fifth session of FiTYMi saw participants getting into electronics by trying to make a simple electronic circuit which uses electromagnetic pulses to convert the last bits of power from old batteries into usable voltages. The session was challenging but participants persevered and produced some circuits to bring home.

Participants were so engaged with their electronics work that we forgot about the food during this session.

Low power generator (2012-03-19)

With a pile of LEDs, Bakelite construction toys, magnets and spools of wire, the fourth edition of Fake it Till You Make it challenged participants to make objects which would produce small amounts of power. One of the most challenging sessions of FiTYMi, none of the participants were able to accomplish the task but everyone had a good time and learned something about principals of generating energy.

Some kind of food was available, but I don't remember what.

The third session of FiTYMi saw the workshops participants experimenting with making gourmet flavors of ice cream and by using chemical reactions to super-cool the dairy products. During the workshop some 20 flavors of ice cream were made, tasted and rated by the class.

Cutout Animation (2012-01-06)

The second edition of FiTYMi was all about cut-out and stop motion animation; we began the workshop with watching 30 minutes of cut-out, stop motion or aesthetically similar cartoons for some inspiration and then participants we're given a short introduction on how to proceed. Participants used the remainder of the workshop to make their own stop motion animations which can be viewed to the right.

During the class sugar & spice cookies were available for workshop participants to snack on, which I baked from my grandmother's recipe.